Texas deputy, set to retire in September, shot dead at home near Austin

Reuters

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A sheriff's deputy in Travis County, Texas was shot and killed on Monday after reporting to the department's dispatcher that a suspected robbery was in progress at his home in suburban Austin, officials said.

Sergeant Craig Hutchinson, a 32-year veteran who was set to retire in September, was pronounced dead at a hospital in Round Rock, north of Austin.

He had gone off duty a few minutes before radioing in the report that people had broken into the backyard of his home, the sheriff's office said.

About 10 minutes after the call, deputies found Hutchinson near a creek behind his back yard with a gunshot wound, it said.

There was no indication of a targeted killing, said the office, adding there were two suspects but no one had been arrested.

Police in Dallas, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have been fatally shot in ambush killings this month by suspects who are said to have been upset over police shootings they believed were motivated by racial bias.